Demolition at Bethlehem Steel started in late January, but the Lackawanna Industrial Heritage group wants all demolition at the site to stop until an investigation can take place.

The group plans to file a lawsuit in Lackawanna City Court on Friday morning after it recently received a report on the structural integrity of the building.

“There were several other reports which were presented to the court which said the building is unsafe, it needs to get knocked down, and this report directly contradicts everything that was in there,” said Paul Fusco-Gessick, Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group attorney.

The group says the report was paid for the owner, Gateway Trade, and conducted by a Syracuse-based architectural firm. It states the walls are upright and the overall structure is not at imminent risk of collapse.

Some members of the group say the owner kept the report a secret because it would interfere with state funding.

“That ruined their chances of getting the Restore NY money and they didn’t want to publicize that, they didn’t want anyone else to know because the city wanted to be able to continue its case,” said Dana Saylor.

Preservationists want the building to be saved since they feel it’s a integral part of the area.

“My husband, who passed away just a month ago, worked there for 42 years and he went through this building to get his job and so I think it’s an icon for the city of Lackawanna, we should have this building,” said Romaine Lilli, Lackawanna Historical Society.

“We now have a time to step back and investigate and look at intelligent re-use of the building,” said David Torke.

YNN reached out to Gateway Trade, but calls were not returned. YNN also contacted city of Lackawanna officials but were told no one was available for comment.

The fight to save the old Bethlehem Steel administration building is not over, even though part of the building has already been torn down.

The Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group is suing the building’s current owners, claiming the Gateway Trade Group withheld an engineering report from the city that said the building is structurally sound and doesn’t need to be demolished.

Attorney Paul Fusco-Gessick said, “There were several other reports which were presented to the court which said the building was unsafe and needed to get knocked down. And this report directly contradicts everything that was in that.”

Activists still fighting to save the embattled Bethlehem Steel Administration Building announced Thursday they are filing a lawsuit today against Gateway Trade Center, contending the company hid a structural engineering report filed in August that concluded the building was structurally sound.

The lawsuit, filed by the Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group, urges Lackawanna City Court to immediately halt demolition that has begun on a rear chemical laboratory at the site off Route 5 near the Buffalo city line. The demolition ball has not touched the long-vacant 1901 Beaux Arts-style administration building – with its ornate facade – that preservationists have rallied to save.

“With this lawsuit, we’re hoping we can stop the bulldozers and take the time to do a proper investigation and a proper reuse study,” said David Torke, a member of the group.

The report by Klepper Hahn & Hyatt, based in Syracuse, concluded that the administration building was in better shape than previously thought. It stands in contrast to views expressed by Steven Bremer, Lackawanna’s code enforcement officer, and two prior studies in which engineers did not gain access to the building.

The preservationists obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Law request.

“We believe the overall building structure to be sound and not at imminent risk of collapse at this time. The collapsing ceilings and abundance of debris observed in the building gives a false illusion of the floors collapsing,” the report said.

It recommended the removal of dormers, parapets, chimneys and other areas in danger of collapse; selective demolition to better gauge the building’s health; and sealing all roof and window openings to keep the elements out.

Torke said the two prior studies had been the “ammunition” used by the City of Lackawanna to push for demolition. He also raised concerns that Parker Bay Engineering, which did the first report concluding the property needed to be torn down, shared office space with Empire Dismantlement, the demolition contractor first hired by Gateway before the Erie County Court-ordered demolition at the city’s request was temporarily stayed from May to November. Zoladz Construction Co. was subsequently hired to perform the demolition.

Klepper, Hahn & Hyatt was chosen by Gateway from a list provided by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which suggested a firm with experience in historic buildings. The agency was required to sign off because Gateway sought a state Restore New York grant, which required the engineering report and a reuse study that never materialized. The company indicated it hoped to use the funds for asbestos removal and possibly demolition.

“Gateway has not only been irresponsible in taking care of the building, but they are asking for state money to continue to shrug their responsibility,” preservationist Meagan Baco said.

Dana Saylor, another preservationist, said she hoped the lawsuit will compel Gateway to follow through on the Restore New York funding requirements and conduct the reuse study.

The fight is far from over in Lackawanna to save the Bethlehem Steel Administration building. Although demolition at the rear of the building started two weeks ago, it has been halted for the last six days for unknown reasons. So far only the small chemistry lab, which was a later addition, has been demolished. The remainder of the structure remains standing.

New evidence has come to light that the building is in fact structurally sound despite the consistent information to the contrary by the owners of the building, Gateway Trade Center and the mayor of Lackawanna, Mayor Geoffrey Szymanski. Both have insisted that structural and engineering reports for the building have deemed it structurally unsound.

This independent report was withheld from the courts by the City of Lackawanna and the Gateway Trade Center owner, Steven Detwiler. The truth has been revealed thanks to the perseverance of members in the Lackawanna Industrial Heritage Group (LIHG), Meagan Baco, David Torke, Lesley Horowitz, and Dana Saylor. Additionally, they received help from two attorneys who are new to Buffalo, Michael Raleigh and Paul Fusco-Gessick. The structural report was obtained by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIL) request.

The full structural report that was completed by Klepper, Hahn, & Hyatt on August 3, 2012 reveals a different story than the owners and the mayor have been peddling; the building is in fact, structurally sound. To read the full report, click here.

The report details the existing condition of the building and notes the limitations of the study, but ultimately concluded, “We believe the overall building structure to be sound and not at imminent risk of collapse at this time. The collapsing ceilings and abundance of debris observed in the building gives a false illusion of the floors collapsing.” It went on to say, “the steel beams have surface rust however we did not observe major scaling or failure of the major structural elements” and “we did not observe large areas of the floor or roof structure that appeared to be on the verge of collapse.”Once again, the full report can be read by clicking here.

While there were two other engineering reports completed that claim the building is not structurally sound, this report is the only one where the consultants were allowed inside the building for their review, giving them the most comprehensive look at the structure that anyone has had thus far.

With this new information in hand, the LIHG (plaintiff) has brought a lawsuit against the owner at Gateway Trade Center, Steven Detweiler (defendant) to halt all demolition until an investigation can take place.

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Quotes of Support

"During the 35 years that I taught American and Modern architecture courses at UB I have seen too many fine buildings representing the city's and the region's stratified history lost to specious demolitions. In fact, examples of Beaux-Arts classicism -- the hallmark style of the peak years of Buffalo's and Lackawanna's heyday -- are particularly rare. Just as the headquarters building originally represented the public face of this once flourishing industry so it should continue to represent what was. I fully support the efforts to save this building and see it restored to some sensible alternative use. - Jack Quinan, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and Senior Curator, Darwin Martin House

"I am a forth generation Lackawanna resident. Also a forth generation steelworker. I'm still employed at the lackawanna bar mill now called republic. My father was an asst roller and worked in the tandem mill. He also worked in the coke ovens. My grandfather (his father) started on the cutting line and then was a foreman in the strip mill. My great grandfather was a stove tender in blast furnace and a pipe fitter at the plant. Even my great grandma worked in the plant during the war in the bar mill as a matter of fact in the same building i still work today!! Lackawanna is in my veins to say the least. I look at the old office building in aww and know its somewhere where my whole family has set foot there." - Andrew, Lackawanna resident

"In Rochester, we lost the "structurally sound" Cataract Brewery buildings last year in order for the Genesee Brewery to create yet another parking lot. Despite the fact that we had engaged a developer and had created realistic and feasible plans to put a new roof on one of the structures, place windows in each opening, clean up the exterior, and provide lighting -- all efforts with an eye toward land banking -- once the mayor and several neighborhoods had their way, there was no turning back the machine. And all of this effort, despite the fact that the Rochester Preservation Board voted unanimously to Landmark the buildings. In interviews since the demolition, a great amount of media outlets and radio hosts continue to claim that the Cataract Buildings were on the verge of collapse and that there were no viable offers to purchase the buildings! Not true. Do not let this happen to Bethlehem Steel." - Joel Helfrich, Rochester, NY

"If we let this building be destroyed or sit in decline as the owners have let it, we are saying we do not care about our past or our rich cultural heritage, therefore we do not care about building our cultural tourism industry and other industries that will spring up as a result of beautifying our urban landscape and preserving our cultural icons. And as a result we are saying we do not care about our community now or in the future." - Spenser Morgan

"We foresee a bright future at this most historic site of our shared cultural heritage, and will do what we can to support and promote the rehabilitation of the building. The building can and should be part of the complete revitalization of the the Lake Erie waterfront." - The Board of Directors of the Steel Plant Museum of Western New York, in a letter to the Mayor of Lackawanna

"I am a Canadian that has been following your fight to save this beautiful building from the beginning and I applaud your efforts. I cannot fathom that someone would want to destroy such a beautiful building that is entrenched with the history of Lackawanna/Buffalo region. I am deeply saddened that the Bethlehem Steel Admin Building will be wiped off the Lacakwana/Buffalo landscape forever, its legacy kept alive through stories, archive photos and people's memories. The biggest shame is that I wanted to go out and see this building in person one day! I can only wish that this building saw an alternative fate." - Matthew Zambri on Facebook

"I am very happy someone is doing something to save this beautiful building. It broke my heart when I heard they were going to tare her down. This is an important architectural design and one of its kind. Future architects and artists will lose a treasure if she is destroyed. Not to mention her value as a tourism attraction for Lackawana. People already come from all over the world to see her beautiful Botanical Gardens and the Basilica. Why not direct them to our pretty Lansing C. Holden building and our canals and lake parks? If this building dies so does an opportunity to show the world we have such landmarks of beauty." - Lisa Willis on Facebook

"In speaking to residents of Lackawanna, specifically those living in Bethlehem Park who are former steel plant workers and their families, there was overwhelming support, as you saw via our change.org petition, to save the building. It is beautiful, one-of-a-kind and NOT beyond rehabilitation and reuse. Bethlehem Steel is not only Lackawanna’s history; it is also this country’s. Please respect our heritage.. your heritage.. and the legacy that has been left for us." - Lisa Perillo, in an email to the Mayor of Lackawanna, NY

"This is a very sad legacy for you as Mayor. It saddens me to see the needless destruction of a beautiful piece of history. This is Lackawanna's character. This building is the kind of building that has the potential to make Lackawanna special and set it apart from other suburbs. Modern developments are boring and ugly. Reuse of this building would be so much better. Please rethink your decision while you have the chance." - Elsa J. Schmidt, Esq., in an email to the Mayor of Lackawanna, NY

"Here in Alaska, just outside of Fairbanks is an historical gold dredge site. A tour through the dredge has been a tourist attraction for many years. It's called Gold Dredge #8. I was impressed and amazed when the tour guide told us all the steel to build it came from Bethlehem Steel." - Linda Romanowski Morrisette, in a Facebook comment

"This is still in the hands of Lackawanna, where there are few preservationists and many who just don’t understand how this building could be the centerpiece for revitalizing their city and that stretch of industrial Lake Erie. Please, help all you can." - Will Harnack, Village of Lancaster, NY, Historic Preservation Commission

"The first step in any place’s recovery is embracing and preserving its identity. The empty Bethlehem building is not an embarrassing symbol of decline. It is emblematic of the place which produced the steel for everything from the WWII battleships that obliterated tyranny to the vehicles that powered America’s auto industry. What’s not to be proud of?" - Donn Esmonde, The Buffalo News

"One of Buffalo’s great shames is the 1950 demolition of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building. But it also has some significant saves, like Louis Sullivan’s Guaranty Building. Even children gasp at its ornate engravings and carvings of terra cotta and copper. That building is on a different tour I give, one I’d like to be able to add the Bethlehem Steel Building to. The field where the Larkin Building’s broken pieces were dumped and buried is on the way to the Bethlehem Steel Building. Please help so that my tour’s grand finale isn’t a similar site in Lackawanna." - Erin St. John Kelly, OpEd for The Buffalo News

"The blast furnaces, tall chimneys and grimy buildings are gone, and some would say good riddance. But the elegant and dignified Administration Building, which has stood since the earliest days of the company, should be seen as a symbol honoring all those generations of men and women who worked so hard to support their families and to raise their children to find their own successes and accomplishments. There could be no more beautiful reminder and memorial." - Mary Horowitz, The Buffalo News, Letter to the Editor

Great buildings, even buildings that have endured years of neglect deserve to remain intact whenever possible. When thinking about matters like these, I like to keep the medical concept of 'first do no harm' at the top of my mind. The Bethlehem Steel building is not a symbol of failure. It is a reminder of a glorious past, and something worth protecting for our future. I understand there is money to be made by demolishing this building, but there is little use for an empty lot at the expense of such a beautiful building that in any other city would have already been put to better use. Please, give this time to get better. Once it is gone, it can never come back, and as we've seen with other long lost buildings in WNY, there is always regret. - Mike Baco, WNY resident, in an email to the Mayor of Lackawanna

"The State Historic Preservation Office has determined that the building is structurally sound and there's no reason it needs to come down. There's no reason for the mayor to be pushing for this demolition at this point." -Dana Saylor, Historian, Old Time Roots

"I don’t see the need to tear it down. It’s a national landmark, it’s part of our history here in Buffalo.” - Joe Peluso, son of a former Bethlehem Steel employee

“It’s not going to come back to that or anything, but we have to do something to tie Lackawanna in to all the good stuff happening in South Buffalo here. This would do it for us.” - Andrea Haxton, former Councilmember, City of Lackawanna

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